From this post, life emerges. *toadstool morphs into frog, frog morphs into person, person types up this post* See! Darwinism at its most basic, and ‘basic’ like your girl who just wants a pumpkin spice latte and to play Candy Crush. It’s how basic is defined, yo. For these pitcher pairings, I’m going to be using our (my) 2019 fantasy baseball rankings. Notably, the top 20 starters for 2019 fantasy baseball, top 40 starters for 2019, top 60 starters for 2019, the top 80 starters for 2019 and top 100 starters. You can also just go to our Fantasy Baseball War Room. Okay, formalities out of the way. *rolls up sleeves, makes farting noise with hand under armpit, rolls down sleeve* Let’s get busy! Now, what is a pitcher pairing? It’s your plan for putting together a fantasy staff. A course of action, of course — of acoursion, naturally. If you have A pitcher, which B, C, D, E and F pitcher goes with him? Which is different than ‘F this pitcher,’ that’s what you say in May. You should have six starters. The sixth starter is Jimmy Nelson or take whoever you want. I suggest an upside pick. Nelson comes to mind. Or Ross Stripling. Touki Toussaint also comes to mind. Dereck Rodriguez anyone? I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5 and some variation of 9 pitcher leagues like the Razzball Commenter Leagues. Speaking of which, the RCL league signups will begin on Monday. (NOTE: What you are about to read is massively confusing. If it were found scribbled in a notebook, the FBI would be watching me. If Ed Kemper stood up and read this at the next prison Meet N’ Greet, no one would blink an eye.) Anyway, here’s pitcher pairings for pitching staffs for 2019 fantasy baseball drafts:

If your first pitcher is from the tiers: “Dan Hartman’s Greatest Hit,” or “Butter deodorant”

These tiers are from Scherzer to Nola. If you draft someone from these tiers, you’ll probably lose your league or get lucky with your hitters. If you do draft one, I wouldn’t take another pitcher until the tiers, “Just put the cap of toothpaste on without mentioning it” and “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Snapchat Filter.” Take one pitcher from one of those two tiers, then grab another starter from one of those two tiers or, “Sideways bosom.” Then grab another starter from, “Sideways Bosom,” “Drinking fizzy drinks that lift you off the ground,” or “An obstetrician screaming, ‘Talk about a hole in one!'” or “Dollar Store condoms.” Then one starter from Condoms or “A mountain of microscopic goose pimples.” Finally, draft one more starter from Goose Pimples. So, you’d have a rotation something like Blake Snell, Jameson Taillon, Shane Bieber, Kyle Hendricks, Matt Shoemaker and Jimmy Nelson. Or you could have Justin Verlander, Zack Wheeler, Luis Castillo, Nathan Eovaldi, Ross Stripling and Touki Toussaint. Either of those staffs will probably net you 13’s in every pitching category in a 12 team league.

If your first pitcher is from the tiers: “The Foaming Lips”

This tier goes from Trevor Bauer to Carlos Carrasco. I’d pair any of them with anyone in their same tier or in the tier, “Adulting,” “Just put the cap of toothpaste on without mentioning it” or “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Snapchat Filter,” but it’s not mandatory you grab two in the first two tiers. In other words, if I drafted Trevor Bauer, I could see taking Carlos Carrasco or Patrick Corbin or Strasburg or anyone from any of those tiers, but I wouldn’t reach either. If you do take two guys from those first two tiers, then move to “Just put the cap of toothpaste on without mentioning it” or “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Snapchat Filter,” and take one guy. You will also be fine taking Bauer and moving right to toothpaste cap and the Hammurabi Snapchat filter. If you skip a 2nd starter in Foaming Lips and Adulting, then draft two guys in the toothpaste cap and Hammurabi. So, you could have either something like Bauer, Carrasco and Joey Lucchesi or Bauer, Glasnow and Wheeler. Either way, you then move along to Sideways bosom, fizzy drinks and an obstetrician screaming and grab a guy, then an obstetrician screaming, a condom or a goose pimple. Finally, one guy from the goose pimples. So, you’ll have something like Bauer, Carrasco, Lucchesi, Pivetta, McHugh and Stripling. Don’t mind if I do! Or you could have something like Bauer, Glasnow, Wheeler, Porcello, Stripling and Jimmy Nelson. That’s straight gorge. As in engorged.

If your first pitcher is from the tiers: “Adulting”

This tier goes from Jack Flaherty to German Marquez. This is likely the way I’m going in 12-team leagues and shallower. This would be ideal (and just as convoluted. Anyone that actually reads AND understands this post deserves a gold star and a head exam. “You, sir, are fit for the looney bin.”) My first pitcher will be from the Adulting, then two starters from toothpaste or Hammurabi’s Snapchat filter, then one starter from Sideways bosom, fizzy drinks, an obstetrician screaming and one starter from an obstetrician screaming, condoms and goose pimples. Finally, a goose pimple. So, you could have something like Marquez, Wheeler, Bieber, Hendricks, Eflin and Freddy Peralta. You just won your league and games haven’t even started. You’re welcome. Could this post become more confusing? Short answer: no. Long answer: nooooooooooo. But let’s try…

Overall Thoughts

You can’t go wrong with a lot of different sets of pitchers. Shoot (not you, deranged white man), you probably could do fine with drafting only 3 starters and 3 great relievers and streaming. If you stick to the pitchers I like, then you’ll do well matching them up any way you see fit. For unstints, I could see a lot of people saying Woodruff is being drafted close to Urias, so is it okay if he’s your goose pimple? Yeah, of course. If you draft only pitchers that I like, then I have no quarrel with you. Wanna reach for Pivetta in the area when the Hammurabi’s are coming off the board? That’s cool with me.

TROUBLE AREAS

WHIP Issues – For every pitcher who is projected over a 1.23 WHIP, take one below. The quicker you do this, the better off you’ll be. For unstints, if you take Eduardo Rodriguez, who I have projected for 1.24, you need to pair him with someone I have projected below a 1.23. Don’t pair Ed-Rod with Pivetta. Pair him with someone like Ryu. Remember, the further you get into the rankings, the harder it becomes to find lower WHIPs. Side note: WHIP can be helped by closers and MRs… Or hurt by them.

What about the tier “The penultimate tier,” or any starter listed in the top 100 starters who are in tiers not listed above. They are 7th starters or DL-bound or minor league-bound who you’re stashing. I wouldn’t count on any of them for anything. I like me some Domingo German or a bunch of those guys, but are you really starting any of them every time out in April and risking a huge blow up, which would lead to a crushing April that leaves you in your fantasy baseball basement and a chance to start trading for keepers in May? You take a flyer on someone like Domingo German, hope he works out and if he doesn’t, you decide whether to drop him in redraft leagues. He’s not your 6th starter.

K ISSUES – For drafters who follow my lead, this shouldn’t be much of an issue. You’re shooting for around 150/starter.

Overall Pitching Issues – Just about everyone, including yours truly, drops at least one of their starters by May 1st. Obviously, you want the best team coming out the draft, but it’s a marathon not a sprint. Starters always come out of nowhere on waivers to become productive. Always. Even in deep leagues.

BONUS FEATURE

Because we both know everything above this point was the gibberish of a mad mind, here’s an easy to use shortcut. Just click the pitcher you draft, then you’ll get a short list of the next pitcher you’re supposed to draft. Frank Voila, snitches! Now, have at it:

My personal note to new Razzball readers: If you are looking through Grey’s rankings and recommendations and wondering how to use them, I would tell you that for position players, his recommendations are worth following, but if you like a few players better than Grey does, you can go ahead and substitute your intuition for a few picks – it is your team after all and Grey’s position player recommendations are not infallible.

But pitchers? Grey’s recommendations for pitchers are straight butta. If Grey likes someone you do not, or does not like someone you do, you should be *very* reluctant to use your own intuition over Grey’s recommendation. His pitching recommendations lead to nirvana.

Grey has pointed out the with bats sometimes it comes down to team needs at some point. In snake drafts a guy can get sniped and as a manager you have to zag when you wanted to zig. In other words be able to adjust your picks on the fly. Knowing the player pool is invaluable.

I’m just glad I have the option of drafting Shoehi the hitter but don’t have to mess around with drafting the frail armed Shoehi. It’ll be interesting if he ever returns to both but Im hoping he does so well as a hitter this year that he doesn’t become a SP again. Maybe bullpen or some shizz like that if he must pitch.

Hey Grey,
My keepers are ALBIES, ARENADO, BREGMAN, SEAGER, TROUT, ACUNA, SOTO, SNELL. We keep 10. Probably keep Ozuna and Paxton/Marquez with the other two. Would you deal Soto straight up for Freeman? Id love to have a stud first baseman but dont want to move soto. Do you think its worth it?

a. I thought it couldn’t get any better than yesterday’s Magna Carta sighting, but lo and behold, it does get better. Great work.

b. Subdued Norm MacDonald quote for February 8

1. A Michigan man has been arrested for the murder of a co-worker following their joint appearance on the Jenny Jones show. Jenny Jones said she’s very upset over the incident. How upset? Find out on the next Jenny Jones show!

2. F. Lee Bailey said this week that if the defense only knew what Ron Goldman’s last words were they might be able to find the real killer. You know, if you ask me, Goldman’s last words were probably..’Hey, your O.J. Simpson!!’

3. And Bailey insists he’s talked to potential witness Maximo Cordoba. I have not talked to F. Lee Bailey says Maximo Cordoba. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Find out on the next episode of the Cordoba show.

4. Some teenagers are snorting or injecting Ritalin, a drug prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder in children. Drug abuse experts warn that Ritalin can cause accelerated blood pressure along with enhanced mental alertness, a surge of energy and an increased sense of self confidence. And remember kids, those are bad things.

5. Well, tests got under way this week to see if those new outlawed bullets are really as dangerous as everyone says.

6. According to a controversial new biography, Elizabeth Taylor likes her lovemaking loud, rough and frequent. Coincidentally that’s also how she likes to eat!

7. The 5th O.J. Juror has been axed! Oh, no! O.J. strikes again!

8. A recent study shows that the number of sexually active teenagers is leveling off at 53% and another study shows the number of teenagers who tell their friends they are sexually active is holding steady at 100%!

9. Newlyweds Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson had their first argument this week. He wants kids while she wants fake kids.

10. Well, it’s official. Michael Jordan is leaving baseball to return to basketball. It is unclear whether the media will now refer to him by his old basketball nickname ‘Air Jordan’ or his more recent baseball nickname ‘Senor Crappy’.

I’d like to suggest a new title for this annual post:
“You’re Gonna Want a Second Monitor for this One, Folks!”

A great follow-up to yesterday’s “Good Luck Scrolling Down to the Comments Section!”

Another fantastic post, and one of my favorites every year. If Grey’s top 600 is the Napoleon Hill of fantasy baseball guides, this post is the Dale Carnegie. I’d make more self-help references, but I won’t.

Thank you, Grey, for doing what delusional and unstable crazy people do on the internet constantly, but and for doing it so incredibly well, and for an audience of a bunch of dudes and 5 dudettes.

No lie, in the mornings my girlfriend hears me giggle at your funnier combinations of words. If she asks what I’m laughing at, I read her the passage, to which she says “That’s not as funny as his ‘Torenado’ bit.” So you’ve even got praise for a shtick from a woman that doesn’t fastasy sport blog, fantasy sport, or even sport.

Just my $0.02. None of those are good for you. Let’s wait for our Messiah, but in my books Yelich, Carrasco and Chapman are better than those other three for this year and probably beyond. Chapman will hit 40 HRs soon with a .300 AVG, Yelich is the real deal, Carrasco is still butter. Altuve – the jury is out, we’ll see this year what his value is. Springer could be 30/10/.265 which is not far from Gallo (paraphrasing Grey!), more or less, and Cano is on his last legs so this year and possibly next and then adios Cano for fantasy baseball purposes.

I would say someone that drafted a starter within the first 20-23 picks are normally top 3 in the league. Where did your dislike for early starters …well..start!? You can find cheap bats all over free agency. Pitchers that go deep enough to get consistent quality starts are tough to find in the draft alone. Wins can be found. But I’d argue there are less breakout starters on free agency as opposed to batters (that’s what the end of your rotations should be filled with) With that being said, I’ve been drafting batter heavy this year, but past years not so much

@Christian Herman: There’s a really cool thing with pitchers called streaming. Hard to stream a replacement for Nolan Arenado.

They’ve actually done an analysis of this in in RCLs a few years back. Who took Kershaw or Scherzer in first round and where did they finish. (Hint: most of them were not at the top half of their leagues)

I used to think that as well but since i found Razzball I changed my thinking. I always did well but i have been in the Championship every year since I switched to Grey’s strategy. It is tough to streams some of these shaky pitchers week to week but over the season you end up ahead.

You can’t replace a big consistent bat but you can always find a pitcher on a short term hot streak or with a good matchup. Hell last year you could just stream who ever was starting against Tampa Bay.

@Christian Herman: I always finish in top 3 in my pitching using this strat. Last year I picked up guys like Stripling, Derek Holland etc. You just have to know how to pick up pitching during the year. I drafted Quintana as my SP1 in the 5th round and he sucked. Took a flyer on Mikolas. Taillon also anchored my staff.

@Christian Herman: The biggest selling point for me of waiting on SP is that there is more injury risk with a pitcher than any other position. It happens to any of them more frequently than a season ender for a hitter. Speed guys can tweak a hammy, but it’s a few weeks. Power guys can pull a lat, but it’s a few weeks. But Tommy John takes the rest of the season and then some. Or a lingering arm issue can lower MPH or make them not throw the slider.

Knocke is right though. There was some analysis done on this in the past. I forget who did it (Lance? I don’t think it was Grey), but another point was the turnover in the top tier was higher for pitchers than for hitters. IIRC, the separation from top hitters and mid-tier hitters was greater than it was for SPs too.

Hot stove is so bad this year people literally blowing their loads about a catcher finally getting traded> OMGZ he is gonna hit 25 homers this year, HE WAS SO GOOD AWAY FROM HOME LAST YEAR @1!!!111
He doesn’t even steal anymore, that was his big value bit right there. If the Phillies also get Harper will you raise Hoskins ranking? I love him too. Oh wait you already have him at 23 lol.

Very high on Shaw after listening to podcast! Def gonna nab him even if it means a round or two earlier than his ADP.

Something bothers me about Bryant. I mean his whole season was fucked up by a shoulder injury that was never really diagnosed and treated except with rest? I almost would have rather he had surgery or something.

The acting in Danemora is top notch. I mean unbelievable. How come no one talks about this show? Shouldn’t it win awards?

If you could get the official 2019 stats on ONE player this year right now who would it be? Mondesi?

@Peacecoast:
Mondesi is a great choice.
I’ll say J. Ramirez.
I would like to know all the one and 2 cat guys, like Gordon, M. Smith, Hamilton. Taking a chance as it is, would be nice to know final numbers.
Gallo is another.

@Peacecoast: Backwards forwards — Mondesi, I know on Dannemora, even Arquette’s husband was incredible, what was his name? Lyle? Damn he was good… Yeah, maybe on Bryant, I hope not, he’s not that old, think he can bounce back… I love Shaw this year… Bleh on Realmuto, he’s still a 18-20 HR, 3 SB, .280 hitter… It’s super boring

Sadly, you left out our favorite ace, so I figured I’d provide an addendum due to your unfortunate oversight:

If you take

A. Clayton Kershaw
go next with…
B. Bumgarner or Greinke
then your choice of
C. Chris Archer or Yu Darvish
follow with
D. John Lester or Jose Quintana
add emphasis with
E. Jake Arrieta or Alex Wood
swing for the fences with
F. Sonny Gray or Mike Minor
take a final stand with
G. Matt Harvey or Vince Velasquez

This should result in no less than a 12th place finish. Rejoice in each choice!!!

10 Team league with up to 6 keepers. 5×5 with OPS instead of AVG and QS instead of Ws. Our keepers are based on a tier ranking system (some weird formula) that correlates to their round in which they can be drafted. For example, Kris Bryant is ranked 23rd overall so he would equal your 3rd round draft pick if you wanted to keep him. So obviously you want to select the best players but you also have to take into account value for the round the Keeper can be selected. Out of the below, who would your 6 selections be. The number in parentheses = the round they would count as my draft pick.

@Grey: Locked and loaded on Domingo Santana in a few rounds too for OF. So I’ll prob just start by grabbing as many of your SPs (EdRod, Bieber, Glasnow, Lucchessi, etc) in the next few rounds, while seeing if I can still scoop Mazara and Domingo somewhere. I’ve got eyes for Eduardo Escobar soon too, so I can slide him in that 3B spot.

I grew up in the South Bay. My parents, sister and most friends still there. I last visited in October. My wife is from NY and dragged me back here three years ago. If I had an extra three million to buy a house where I grew up She’d consider moving back.

@Dave D: I didn’t know shizznit about the east coast until we started exploring the move. I don’t need to lnow that much other than its colder, more humid with lots of mosquitoes in summer, like .01 percent of the homeless population of CA, beach houses are affordable for non celebrities/CEO types. That is most of what I’ve realized that affects everyday life.

I did. Went back and looked at the comment. He wasn’t there. He works for the company that was throwing the party.

I was high on eRod last year. I spotted some mechanical fixes in ST. Higher still on him and could see a top 20 with some luck. Bieber I think the Indians analytics team will make some tactical adjustments with him and he could be huge. Probably looked at more film on him than any player this off season.

I’m late pitching every year. Think my first pitcher last year was Castillo in our NFBC. But I do trust Magoo. He always puts together good teams.

I’ve been talking about this a lot this off season, but I’d really like to see somebody put some numbers together in an effort to quantify various draft strategies like early SPs vs wait. Is it possible even to quantify draft strategies? Or is it just a matter of all are equal in theory and only subject to better or worse execution?

Saw your updated ranks of lindor. Would you honestly even touch him in the first rd now? Calf injuries are tricky especially for a guy who you were expecting to get 25-30 an and so many other good options available. I remember the Donaldson calf injury and what it did to him and kept being aggravated. Do you even want to deal with this potential headache? I know what he is capable of doing but is the risk worth it?

If there’s one setback, I will move him further back but where I put him feels fine for now… information is scant right now… if he’s back last week of spring or first week of May is up in the air still… he’s also now in an avoid tier

Grey: Trade my Story ($21) & Taillon ($10) for his Soto ($6). 12 team 5×5 keeper auction with $300 budget and OPS instead of AVG. Unlimited keepers with $5 annual salary inflation factor. Love Soto and him being so young and so cheap – would only be $35 in his age 26 season!!?

Grey: Trade my Story ($21) & Taillon ($10) for his Soto ($6). 12 team 5×5 keeper auction with $300 budget and OPS instead of AVG. Unlimited keepers with $5 annual salary inflation factor. Love Soto and him being so young and so cheap – would only be $35 in his age 26 season!!?

I get most my fantasy baseball advice from Razzball, but I can’t emphasize enough how excellent the pitching picks have worked out for me of late. My staff last year featured nola, corbin, clevinger, folty and wheeler thanks to these rankings. Actually makes me enjoy drafting pitchers. So, thank you Grey and Razz fam!

Nice to keep an Ace SP late, so I have been leaning Corbin, since Severino was scary last year and bumps Story up a round.
But, the ADP and ranks on Yahoo are such that maybe I should keep Ozuna instead and just target some of these pitchers in rounds 6-9. (Y! Ranks have Ozuna at 53, Corbin at 68).

wese got an interesting problem, BOTH of bour/otani present bad lefty side splits. this might help bour’s at bats. i had no idea otani’s last year OPS vs L were .654 vs R 1043. that’s an insane split level. so pujols and ONE of the turrible against lefty guys will be playing every day (unless new manager notices this then it gets much worse for the non-pujols’ guys). good projections systems have otani as actually WORSE this year against lefties than .654. SOB, that’s gonna leave a mark.

Just looking for some advice through a critical eye. My notes are that to take Bauer I had to pass up Albies and other SS/3B, but already having Story and Machado and knowing Mondesei would be 2B, I went to SP… unfortunately they raped the 1B there or I would have grabbed Rhys, Rizzo, or Belli instead. I wasn’t comfortable on Treinen as I usually close the draft with chump relievers, but I didn’t see anyone amazing and his ratios are tasty by your projections. Ok, in all honesty I do like 1 solid reliever at least for ratios and Ks. Other than that not too much to note. Pretty sure I like Grandal at round 16, doesn’t seem like a reach. I am pretty sure I’d be happy if this was my actual roto team.

Must keep 10 in a keep-forever league 7×7 roto league, 5×5 plus OPS and K’s for hitters, QS and Holds for pitchers. No salaries or pick penalties, just keep a guy and he’s yours.

Have Betts, Bregman, Bryant, Rizzo, Vladito, Eloy, Scherzer, and Kershaw as my first 8….deciding between a pair of Mazara/Pham/Mallex for the last two spots (unless someone feels like making a real compelling case for Doolittle or Darvish). Who’s the odd man out?

So given ADP is mainly used to know when guys you like may be around for a certain round of the draft, what ADP data do you use? NFABP I assume. But do you use the most recent? How recent? It seems that it only matters what everyone else in the league uses. What do you use? Kinda pointless to use only the last month’s data if the rest of the league just loads up the NFBC page and uses the default list which goes back to November or something!

ya that is the default listing that shows all drafts. You can also just select a date range to get the most recent drafts. I am starting to think most people use the default and not the most recent drafts. Ugh it makes a big difference for some players!

Other than looking for good in draft software advice I need a lot of help from a master. While I don’t think this is the year yet, I want to go in and try to draft a winner because I have some decent profit, just not a lot of talent. I play in a 12 team AL 5×5 roto auction league with OPB instead of BA that’s been going for over 20 years
Keep min 6 up to 12 roster players. My Minors are fine.
Garver 3C
Mondessi 1B
Gleyber 10B
Gerrit Cole 30B
Carlos Rodon 8B
Diego Castillo 3B
Clint Frazier 4B
Christian Stewart 7A
Ryon Healy 11 second of 3 years
Hunter Dozier 1B
Ohtani 24B
Daniel Norris 2B
Brad Keller 4B
Kyle Tucker 10b ( would need to protect on major roster as I activated him)
Giolito 10B
What 6 or more is worth keeping on my active roster. We play traditional with two catchers and a DH or 10th pitcher as our way of celebrating Ohtani and the incoming 2 way player , Anyone that is a B needs to be signed next year at +5 for 2 years or +10 for 3

Putting your tiers into the Rotowire App (Aren’t you affiliated with those guys somehow now? Can’t they put your rankings into a separate tab on their app and sell it for an extra $3 or something. They are based where I live in Madison, WI so let me know if you need a local negotiator)

Anyhoo…And just reading the Andrelton Simmons blurb. I must have missed it. Leading off with “One thing this guy really excels at is plate appearances. Have you ever seen his plate appearances?” That is sooo great.

so I just gotta ask….I can keep Carpenter in round 8. With keeper inflation he will likely go around round 5 in my league. Versus Voit in round 20 (inflation he would go around 14). I know you hate Carp. I do too. So keep Voit? Or gamble on the 8 round value in Carp since Voit may not have a job after ST.

I am thinking Carrasco and Ray could be a good pairing. I’m higher on Ray despite the walks and hoping for continued improvement he showed through July through September last year. But part of me is looking for positive value in keeper vs adp.